40-cent tickets show Illini can't afford to NOT fire football coach Tim Beckman

Monday

Nov 11, 2013 at 1:17 PM

Illinois is now 0-13 in the Big Ten under second-year coach Tim Beckman. People say the Illini can't afford to fire him. I say they can't afford not to let him go.

The Illini should have seen this coming. I sure did, writing at the time that it was silly to hire a former defensive coordinator whose Toledo team gave up more than 60 points in back-to-back weeks.

The fact that he never should have been hired in the first place is a reason not to give him a long leash. This isn't Ron Zook, who could at least recruit, or Ron Turner, who had a long track record in the NFL.

Reports are that Illinois won't fire Beckman because they don't want to pay three coaches at once. They are still paying Zook and Beckman makes $1.7 million a year.

But people are selling tickets to the Purdue-Illinois game for 40 cents.

Forty cents!

And how about that season-ending, in-state big rivalry game with Northwestern? Tickets for that game are going for as low as $3.

Beckman is destroying Illini football as a brand.

That brand is worth more than $1.7 million a year. Illinois football has not been as big as Illini basketball for several decades, but it shouldn't be a complete joke. Or worse: Inspire complete apathy.

If Illinois officials expect fans to ever care about Illini football again, they need to start over with a new coach.